Labor of Love

These days, the B&C Industries logo can be spotted on some of the South’s best high-ridin’ Chevys. But before they were throwing boxes on ’sixes, this Broward custom shop was busy building cars that were dragging their oilpans on the hot Southern pavement. Lowriders, mini-trucks and even tuners were getting juiced and bagged by B&C. To stay on top, though, they had to evolve to cater to the newest trend—hi-risers.

“The big rim thing didn’t take off until our third year of business,” says Bobbie Jo Lewis, who owns B&C with her husband, Kenny. “We did our first lift on ’fours in 2004—on a ’72 two-door Cutlass—and since then we’ve put out 50 to 60 cars.” The majority of those cars have been sitting on 24s or 26s, but B&C has also installed its custom suspensions on about 10 cars sitting on 28s
and two on 30s.

Back in 2000, though, it was all about the pavement scrapers, not skyscrapers. The duo opened Drop Zone with another partner and built their first lowrider, an ’85 four-door Cutlass hopper with two-tone paint.

But in 2003, Kenny and Bobbie Jo split with their Drop Zone partner and opened B&C, which they named after their daughters. The couple started lifting rides to meet demand, and the expertise they’ve gained keeps them on top of their game. “When we put the Cutlass up on big rims, we didn’t know what we were doing,” says Bobbie Jo. “Nobody really knew how to put truck rims on a car. It was a trial-and-error thing—we kept redoing it, spending our own money and learning what it took to do it correctly.” Seems to be money well spent.